The Apple TV “TV” app is a complete bust as-is, IMO. It can’t fulfill its “one place for all” my TV content mission, because it doesn’t have Netflix! Amazon I didn’t expect, given the rivalry, but Netflix?! How can anyone claim to be a one-stop shop for TV without Netflix? I’m sure it’s Netflix not wanting to be aggregated behind someone else’s interface, but man, that’s what I want. One place to browse, search, etc. Netflix is terrible for discovery, and this could really help with that. Not to mention (and I didn’t really expect this) it’s got no way to get to my TiVo recordings.

After all that, it turns out that it’s not even available until the end of the year! Why are we talking about it now then?! Oh, I see. It’s because, despite the embarrassingly out-of-date Mac lineup, we’re about to be even more disappointed, and they need to pad the event.

The new MacBook Pro is impressive enough, but there just isn’t enough sizzle there. I thought the demos of the Touch Bar were good–the Photoshop one was really compelling–but once I got to checkout and the thing was $4k, I just didn’t push the button.

One other reason to not push it? No external Retina Display. Come on! “Partnering” with LG to sell their 4k display is a weak stand-in for a real first-party solution. I was hoping for a 5k Retina Display, like in the iMac.

Aaaaand, that’s it, “thanks for coming”. Futhermucker! No iMac spec bump? The Mac Pro continues to be an embarrassment? I guess so. For fuck’s sake, Microsoft showed them up! Microsoft! This is the worst time to be a Mac lover in recent memory, MacBook Pro notwithstanding. Then, to add to the pain, they quietly delayed the EarPods launch.

First of all, it’s not simply “politics” that’s the problem here. In fact, that’s an argument I see far too often regarding Trump: that people do or don’t like him because of his politics. People might disagree with his positions on issues–I certainly do–but that’s not what this is about anymore. It’s about hate: against women; against religions he doesn’t like; against minorities.

I think most would agree that a company would generally be unwise to react to an employee or other professional relationship negatively simply because of someone’s political views. But these aren’t political views in the modern sense, and these companies are reacting to the beyond-the-pale rhetoric of a vile person and his supporters.

Also:

“Silicon Valley has disavowed Trump for his comments about women and his stance on immigration, two hot-button issues in the tech industry.”

Why wouldn’t those, but particularly the former, be “hot-button issues” for all people? Does Silicon Valley really care more about women than the rest of the country? Silicon Valley has its own diversity issues that suggest otherwise, although perhaps the fact that so much attention has been paid to the issue of diversity in our companies is the reason for the comment. In any case, it’s a shame.

Ouch. I have a Yahoo account because I use Flickr–which Yahoo owns, sadly–but definitely don’t do anything private with it. This makes me just as angry at the legal situation in the US, which has allowed these kinds of requests to be accompanied with a gag order that prevents the public from knowing about the overreach.

“No one with an open mind and sound reason who witnessed the sniffing, sipping, scowling, raging, interrupting display of petulance and agitation that was Donald Trump’s debate performance on Monday could possibly argue that he won that debate or that he is the kind of person to whom we should entrust the presidency.”

It amazes me that there are people who reasonably think that Trump won that debate.

“It takes a tremendous ego and a healthy dose of hubris to believe that you can simply bluster your way through a presidential debate, but if anyone thinks that way, it’s no surprise it’s the uniquely underqualified and overblown king of bragging and whining: Donald J. Trump.”

I’ve been using WatchOS 3 for a bit now; I was using the developer releases prior to GA. WatchOS 3 is a big step forward for the watch, and if you bought one but haven’t been using it, you should definitely update it and give it another shot.

I ended up getting the 4.7" iPhone 7–sizing down from my iPhone 6s Plus–in Jet Black. I’m sure in large part, that’s why this phone feels so jewel-like in my hand: it actually feels small, and that’s not how I felt about my previous 4.7" iPhone, the original 6. So far, I’m thrilled to be back to the smaller phone.

The finish is pretty amazing: it doesn’t feel like either aluminum nor plastic. It’s got a polished, almost sticky grip like the 3GS did, but not the plasticky feel. It’s hard to tell where the screen begins, it’s so smooth.

It’s fast. I have the iPad Pro as well, and this thing benchmarks as fast or faster than that does. I don’t run benchmarks, but in use, it’s blazing. Rerouting after a turn in Maps is super quick, and everything is responsive.

The new home button doesn’t feel at all like a button, but I don’t mind it. Touch ID is even quicker than before. The Taptic Engine is put to new uses in iOS 10, and it’s a really nice experience. I particularly like the taps that it uses when scrolling through a date list to make it feel like a tactile operation.

Perhaps it’s because awards shows are overly long and not very entertaining. That said, I thought the Emmy awards were pretty good last night. That brings us to:

“Still others say that given the abundance of TV shows these days, many people are unfamiliar with the awards winners at the Emmys. Rami Malek won best actor for his role in “Mr. Robot,” but that series has little more than a million viewers. Likewise, Tatiana Maslany won best actress in a drama for “Orphan Black,” and though it is a critical hit, the show is not broadly popular. Only 695,000 people watched that show’s season finale this year, according to Nielsen.”

That’s why I liked them! They actually gave the awards to some cutting edge, quality shows! If crap like Modern Family keeps winning, you know they’re just playing a marketing game. Let the masses enjoy their CSI: Whatever, but let’s not pretend they’re pushing any boundaries or doing anything novel. Let’s give awards to shows that do something new and reward that behavior.

I completely agree that a change to real, formal debates would be fantastic. I disagree that it’s not too late, though; there’s no way Trump would appear under such conditions, and his supporters wouldn’t leave him for not appearing.